Experian and BSkyB Form Consumer Insight Business

Global information services giant Experian is divesting part of its UK database marketing activities to form a new consumer and media insight business with its client British Sky Broadcasting (Sky). Terms have not been disclosed.

Experian and Sky previously partnered to develop an application which combines the data held by Sky with Ordnance Survey Address Point data, to provide the broadcaster with a view of how many UK prospect households can be targeted in each region.

Over the past few years, Experian has been repositioning its global Marketing Services division to focus on digital marketing capabilities.

The firm says that by 'injecting' part of its UK hosted database solutions into this new venture, Experian will 'further tighten' the focus of its marketing services portfolio on core data and analytics.

The new - as yet unnamed - company, in which Sky will hold a majority stake, will offer consumer and media insight services and customer management capabilities to a number of large hosted database clients, including Sky.

According to reports, Duncan Painter - former CEO of Experian Integrated Marketing - will become MD of the joint venture. Prior to working at Experian, Painter founded database company ClarityBlue, which he sold to Experian for £85m in 2006.

Before being taken over, his firm had worked with Sky to segment its database and identify specific customer preferences, such as which programmes they liked watching and which socio-economic group they belonged to.

Experian's latest deal is expected to complete at the end of June, and the firm says that the name of the new brand will be announced in due course.

Web sites: www.experianplc.com and www.sky.com .